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The age of Mahershala Ali continues, as the Oscar-nominated Moonlight star is nearing a deal to join Tom Hardy and Channing Tatum in Paramount’s crime thriller TRIPLE FRONTIER, the Tracking Board has confirmed.
J.C. Chandor is directing from a script by Mark Boal, who initially developed the project with Kathryn Bigelow. Boal is also producing the film with Charles Roven and Alex Gartner of Atlas Entertainment.
Triple Frontier is set in a notorious border zone between Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil that is difficult to monitor, making it a haven for organized crime and drug cartels.
Tom Hanks and Will Smith have circled the project in recent years, though the pairing of Hardy and Tatum is equally exciting, albeit in a different way. With Ali aboard, this has officially become an ensemble to freak out over.
With the possible exception of Free State of Jones (which underperformed despite a typically strong turn from the actor), Ali had a banner year in 2016 on both the big and small screens. In addition to Moonlight, for which he just won a SAG award, Ali co-starred in the Oscar-nominated hit Hidden Figures and the excellent if under-seen indie Kicks, plus the recent Sundance sensation Roxanne Roxanne.
Ali also played the villainous Cottonmouth on Marvel’s Netflix series Luke Cage, reprised his role as Remy Danton on the streaming service’s House of Cards, and booked a role in Robert Rodriguez and James Cameron’s Alita: Battle Angel.
How Ali has the time to class up all of these projects, I’ll never know. I’ll just have to live with that mystery. Kudos to his increasingly busy team at WME and Anonymous Content.
Variety broke the news of Ali’s casting in Triple Frontier.
Jeff Sneider | Editor in Chief
